American literature 3300-LAC-SFK-3-Z
The class provides a survey course of American literature beginning with the earliest literary forms (narrative and poetic) of the colonial period and ending with the most important trends in US literature of the recent years. The material for discussion is presented chronologically. Before every class the students are asked to read a chosen text. Close readings of literary texts allow for an in-depth understanding of the evolution of American thought and culture also in the context of politics, technological progress and, in recent years, the ecological crisis and climate change. During the classes we will discuss the following topics: oral traditions of the First Nations, Puritanism, the Enlightenment, transcendentalism, 19th century fiction, 19th century poetry, realism, naturalism, modernist fiction, modernist poetry, post WWII fiction, post WWII poetry, drama, postmodernism and literatures of various ethnic groups.
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
K_W01 The student has the knowledge and understanding of the place and the meaning of American literature withing literary studies.
K_W03 The student has knowledge and understanding of the specialist terminology, methodology, which are characteristic of English literary studies.
K_W06 The student has the knowledge and understanding of the methods of analysis and the diversity of interpretation techniques of texts of American literature and culture from the perspective of various approaches within literature studies.
K_W08 The student has the knowledge and understanding of the multifaceted relations of American literature to historic and cultural processes.
K_U01 The student can apply basic theoretical constructs which are characteristic of English literary studies.
K_U02 The student can apply basic research skills in accordance with the scientific code of ethics and copyright law; these skills include identifying and analysing the problem, choosing adequate methodology and research tools, analysing and presenting results, all of which pertain to literary studies.
K_U03 The student can recognise, analyse, and interpret various types of texts of American literature; can anchor them in the general historic-cultural context; can conduct their analysis with specialist terminology and adequate methods.
K_K04 The student is ready to respect the professional code of ethics.
K_K05 The student is ready to show respect and care for preserving American cultural heritage.
Assessment criteria
Test (60%), participation in class discussions (40%), absences allowed - 3
Bibliography
Selected primary texts:
Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1941)
Benjamin Franklin, "Autobiography" (1793)
Ralph Waldo Amerson, "Self-Reliance" (1841)
Henry David Thoreau, "Walden" (1954)
Edgar Allan Poe, selected stories
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The House of the Seven Gables, A Romance" (1951)
Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener" (from: "The Piazza Tales", 1956)
Henry James, "The Turn of the Screw" (1898)
Djuna Barnes, "Nightwood" (1936)
William Faulkner, "As I Lay Dying" (1930)
Joseph Heller, "Catch 22" (1961)
Toni Morrison, "Sula" (1973)
Thomas Pynchon, "The Crying of Lot 49" (1966)
Jeff Vandermeer, "The Annihilation" (2014)
Selected secondary texts:
Reynolds, David S. "Beneath the American Renaissance" (Harvard University Press, 1988)
Gilbert, Sandra M.; and Susan Gubar eds., "Shakespeare's Sisters. Feminist Essays on Women Poets" (Indiana University Press, 1979)
Steinman, Lisa. "Made in America: Science, Technology and American Modernist Poets" (Yale University Press, 1987)
Grauerholz, James; and Ira Silverberg eds., "Word Wirus. The William Burroughs Reader" (New York: Grove Press, 1998)
Rankine, Claudia; and Lisa Sewell, eds. "American poets in the 21st Century. The New Poetics" (Wesleyan University Press, 2007)
Keller, Lynn, "Recomposing Poetics: North American Poetry of the Self-Conscious Anthropocene" (University of Virginia Press, 2017)
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: